What Stocks Did Hedge Funds Love Last Quarter? Apple, Google, AIG The Top Trio

Each quarter, hedge funds’ 13F filings come streaming in right around the 45-day mark after the period’s close. There are over 8,000 hedge funds active in the financial markets today, but we at Insider Monkey choose to track 500 of them.

Why do we focus on this upper-tier?

Warren Buffett

Our research shows that when looking at the whole picture, the best picks of the best hedge funds can beat the market, and the results of our premium strategy, as well as of the MarketWatch/Insider Monkey Billionaire Hedge Fund Index, speak for themselves.

The Q1 list

The following data represents the number of hedge funds with long positions at the end of the first quarter. The data pool is the industry’s best 500 funds in action today. A + or – will indicate if the aggregate consensus rose or fell during the first quarter:

Apple:  148 hedge funds long (flat)

Google: 146 (+)

AIG: 145 (-)

Citigroup: 117 (+)

GM: 110 (+)

Qualcomm: 96 (+)

JPMorgan Chase: 93 (-)

Bank of America: 92 (-)

eBay: 89 (-)

Microsoft: 88 (-)

Q4 totals

By comparison, here’s where each of these stocks stood at the end of 2012’s fourth quarter. For ease, we’ve left the order the same as is presented above, so direct comparisons can be made between the two positions:

Apple: 148 hedge funds long

Google: 137

AIG: 153

Citigroup: 112

GM: 104

Qualcomm: 95

JPMorgan Chase: 97

Bank of America: 101

eBay: 92

Microsoft: 99

Disclosure: none